News - Amazon said to be considering book rental service

[HEXUS]

A subscription-based e-book service is novel, but publishers have reservations.

Read more.

[crossy]

Amazon is looking into the possibility of creating a new subscription book service that would allow people to access an e-book library

Great idea!

Especially if they do it properly:

• Get a good range of titles - not just the latest Dan Brown or pointless celebrity autobiography;
• Not necessarily do it as a pay-per-read - let you borrow a certain number of books in exchange for a reasonable monthly fee (one at a time obviously!);
• Deliver it - if possible - via the existing Kindle app. I find this quite good, and I like the idea of being able to read a book on my tablet, then continue on the smartphone app on a train/bus, etc;

and - if possible - perhaps offer a small discount if you borrow a book and subsequently decide to buy it. Maybe this would be a small incentive for the publishers - the chance of increased sales?

Personally, I'd like a scheme like this that allowed me to indulged my passions for sci-fi and thrillers, without necessarily ending up with a cupboard full of books. (Not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with that, at least until they fall out on your feet!)

[miniyazz]

Just a point against the 'publisher's objections' - the cost of distribution is so insignificant compared to the price of the book that it's not even worth worrying about with electronic sales. Paper sales is obviously more of an issue, but the cost with electronic sales goes towards author compensation and marketing (and a few other things) much more than to distribution, which is already handled by economies of scale. If the publishers even have any more to do with it than hand a master copy to Amazon on a silver platter.

[Saracen]

Just a point against the 'publisher's objections' - the cost of distribution is so insignificant compared to the price of the book that it's not even worth worrying about with electronic sales. Paper sales is obviously more of an issue, but the cost with electronic sales goes towards author compensation and marketing (and a few other things) much more than to distribution, which is already handled by economies of scale. If the publishers even have any more to do with it than hand a master copy to Amazon on a silver platter.

The main point of publisher's objections is that a large part of the cost of publishing a book occurs well prior to it getting distributed, whether it be in paper or electronic form. It's in all the stages that go to prepare a book to the point where it can be published. Exactly what those are varies from book type to book type, and will be different for a cookery book to the latest number 1 best-seller, but they all have costs. Not least of these, for a 'good' publisher, is sales and marketing, and that can be very expensive, and a lot of it is taking place months before the book is ready to be paper-printed or e-printed, and probably, before the final manuscript even arrives from the author. It also covers sales negotiation, copy editing, design and graphics, and so on. For that reason, those costs are incurred whether a book ends up e-printed and sold, e-printed and rented out of paper-printed. So the question is, does this distribution model dilute the number of paper and/or e-sales>

[crossy]

So the question is, does this distribution model dilute the number of paper and/or e-sales>

I think it's pretty much guaranteed. I'm assuming that the new Amazon system will be some sort of pay-monthly contract arrangement. In which case, I would suggest that the only folks who'll continue to buy the books outright are either the folks who aren't on the scheme or those who are fans of the author/series.

On the other hand, I'm sure that it's going to happen that someone will "borrow" a book under this scheme, read it, then subsequently decide that it's good enough to want to have permanently. I suppose it really depends on how expensive the monthly fee is - if it's too low then it'd make more sense to just slot that book into your "favourites" and borrow it whenever you fancy re-reading it, (unless there's going to be some restriction against doing that?)

My worry is that this might eat into the customer numbers at the few remaining libraries that the government hasn't managed to close. Although (cynical mode on) I'm sure we'll have some backbencher coming on the screen to say how this is a great way to enable people who can't get to a library (either because they've not got transport, or the local one is no more) to benefit from the richness of our literary heritage.